In Terms of Black and White: Race, Citizenship, and Dissent in Great War America, 1917-1919

Indianapolis, IN

When J.H. Ellis, a black minister in rural Arkansas, was put in prison, he contacted the National Civil Liberties Bureau (the precursor to the American Civil Liberties Union) maintaining that he had not committed the crimes of which he was accessed. For ninety-six days, Ellis remained locked in a jail in Newport, Arkansas for allegedly preaching against America's military involvement in World War I. He was accused of speaking out in violation of the Espionage and Sedition Acts passed by Congress. Eventually, Ellis was released when a Grand Jury was unable to indict him. But as he left the Newport jail, he was greeted by a mob made up of local official including the county prosecutor, the sheriff, and the postmaster. He was kidnapped, taken to a dark forest, and badly beaten. Whether or not Ellis actually committed his alleged crimes, the archive does not tell us. But the response from the local officials in Newport is indicative of wider understandings of citizenship and the politics of belonging in the context of the First World War. My research has drawn from archival sources obtained from the American Civil Liberties Union records, historical editions of the New York Times, audio files and transcripts collected from the Schowalter Audio Collection, and other primary and secondary sources. This thesis explores the ways in which citizenship and inclusion were connected to one's race, class, and ideological beliefs. It establishes that Draft laws, the treatment of conscientious objectors, and public actions against dissent on America's homefront during the First World War served as more than just ways to maintain support for military involvement overseas; these phenomena ultimately worked to redefine notions of whiteness in modernizing America, establishing regimes of de facto citizenship based on race, ideology, and class.